Sunday, October 2, 2011

Billy Wilder(Tied for 17th with 7 titles in the top 1000, he is 12th in overall points with 31,120)

Born Samuel Wilder in 1906, in a part of Austria-Hungary that is now in Poland. Once training as a lawyer, he began writing for a Viennese newspaper, then moved to Berlin, working as a newspaper columnist and screenwriter when Hitler came to power. Having one Jewish parent, he left for Paris, then left France for the U.S. and became one of the best American directors, ironically never losing his European accent.

He was nominated for 20 academy awards and won six – three for screenwriting, two for directing, one for producer of a best picture, three of these coming for The Apartment, which won best picture. He also directed the best picture winner The Lost Weekend (1945). He rarely made a bad film and is one of my favorite five directors overall. Many credit his crime thriller Double Indemnity for starting the popularity of the film noir genre. In that film he cast both Barbara Stanwyck and Fred McMurray (who agreed after several other actors turned down this part, fearing public backlash) out of character as two adulterers who plot the murder of her husband to collect a huge life insurance premium.

Of these extra films, I would definitely move One, Two, Three up to the top 1000 myself – a terrific comedy that spoofs both capitalism and communism, as the Coca-Cola man in West Berlin, wonderfully played by James Cagney, wants to open the market behind the Iron Curtain for Coke, seeing dollar signs all across the Soviet Union. I’m shocked that The Seven Year Itch (1955) received no listing on the polls, it’s certainly better than Avanti! and produced perhaps the most iconic image in films, of Marilyn Monroe standing over a subway vent and letting the warm air blast her nether regions.

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Introduction to World's Best Films

We will review (spoiler-free capsule reviews) and list the greatest films in history, wherever and whenever they were produced.

All films in Gold won Best Picture Oscars®. * is a new addition in a list.

Our Top Ranked 1000 Films, all polls, was compiled by taking all film polls we could find, throwing them into a spreadsheet, and gave numeric points in descending order. The result was over 2200 films listed in all, ranked by their relative positions in all the polls combined. This combination of both critics and fans polls should give film fans the most objective list of how films are perceived by the total film community, not just a small group of fans.

Relevant to said mission is the following query which I now put forth to you: wherein this most streamlined and trunkless of transports, boner-inspiring though it may be, wherein are we to reposit our most recently deceased cargo?” - Sin City

Go ahead, make my millenium! - Beetlejuice

I have nothing, I am a river to my people! - Lawrence of Arabia

Hey, senor, how much for the leetul girl? How much for the women? - The Blues Brothers

It's a girl and a midget, 'gidget', get it? - Gidget

I've worked in the private sector, they expect results. - Ghostbusters

Man, that's one big twinkie! - Ghostbusters

I put the grrr in swinger, baby! - Austin Powers

Badges? We don got to show you no stinkin badges! - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Boredom's the first step on the road to relapse - Clerks II

I ain't 'people'! I am a.. 'a shimmering, glowing star in the cinema firmament' - Singin' in the RainIf we bring a little joy into your humdrum lives, it makes us feel as though our hard work ain't been in vain for nothin'. - Singin' in the Rain (both from Jean Hagen)

..More Quotes

I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore! - Network

Lend all men thine ear, but lend few your tongue - Hamlet

Neither a borrower nor a lender be. - Hamlet

Doubt the the stars are fire; doubt that the moon's above; doubt that the truth's a liar; but never doubt my love - Hamlet

I picked a helluva week to give up _____ - Airplane!

You can always pay half the poor to kill the other half. - Boss Tweed, Gangs of New York

The first rule of politics: the ballots don't make the election winner, the counters make the winner. - Boss Tweed, Gangs of New York

Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night - All About Eve

You can still dish it out, but you just can't take it anymore - Little Caesar